Zhangjiagang


Zhangjiagang, formerly Shazhou County, is a county-level city under the administration of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China and one of the many ports along the Yangtze river.
With 1,246,762 inhabitants at the 2010 census, the city is now part of Jiangyin-Zhangjiagang-Jingjiang metropolitan area with 3,526,260 inhabitants. Continued growth will encompass the Yangtze River Delta metropolitan region. It borders the prefecture-level cities of Taizhou and Nantong across the Yangtze River, as well as Wuxi to the west.

History

Toponym

Zhangjiagang is derived from a port in the city, while the port is named after a tributary, Zhangjia. All of them are written as "张家港" in Chinese.

Overview

The area of the city was under jurisdiction of Jiyang township, Piling county during the Han dynasty. It was transferred to Jiyang county which established in 281, while the eastern part of Jiyang was separated as Nansha county in 335. Nansha was merged into Changshu and likewise Liangfeng was merged into Jiangyin. The two counties were demarcated formally by three rivers whose names were Chuan Gang, Jiejing He and South Gudu Gang since 1667. In 1874, a canal called Chang-Tong gang demarcating then Changshu and Nantong was built.
The shoals formed by alluvial deposits in varying of shape and size border the Yangtze River were called shazhou in Chinese. Thus, when the CPC established a new county which located in then Northern Changshu, it was designated as Shazhou. The county was disestablished after the Double Tenth Agreement was signed. In 1962, Changshu and Jiangyin separated their owned parts to establish a county bearing Shazhou. When the county was turn into a county-level city in 1986, it was renamed Zhangjiagang.

Geography

Located 140 kilometers from Shanghai, Zhangjiagang is located along the southern banks of the Yangtze River. The land surrounding Zhangjiagang is extremely fertile, with large spans of rice paddies. In addition, many fish farms are located around the city. Many tributaries of the Yangtze have been contaminated from the construction and operation of chemical factories in the suburb areas.

Administration

Zhangjiagang is a special industrial zone. The conceptualization of the port originated with urban city planner Wang Weifeng, PhD
Besides, Changyinsha Modern Agriculture Demonstration Zone, Shuangshandao Island Tourist Resort,,,,, and are regarded as township level administrations with actual jurisdictions.